Back to life, back to reality

Yes it's sad and true--I'm back from Europe. Going to Venice was such a great trip for me academically and personally so I'm so glad I got to go however shortlived it was! Wish I was there all summer!

Love,

Sarah

Verona

Salve!

We went to Verona on Saturday! It was beautiful and small enough that we got to see everything we wanted to and have time to goof off as well.

We went to the Arena, the Castle of S. Pietro, saw the Teatro Romano, Duomo, etc! The Fiume Adige (river) flows through the whole city. I bought a map and led everyone around like i had been there before! We stayed for dinner and found this great buffet style place and I got a HUGE salad pasta and 0.5 L of wine for 12 Euro...WHATTA BARGAIN!

This is us being dorky along the River Adige. The Castle Pietro and Teatro Romano are up on the hill behind us. The next picture (kinda emo haha) is me in the grass half way up the big hill. We really liked this spot because we had a great view of Verona and we could hear a band warming up at Teatro Romano. We got snacks and wine and parked there for a while haha.

These pictures were taken by my roomate Julianna. I have my own pictures from Verona but I have yet to convert them all to jpgs and pick five favorites for the blog! Today (Sunday) it was rainy and cold, random! We watched the rowing race down the Grand Canal before going to the Ducal Palace for 2 hours to finish our treasure hunt for Art History. Then I spent hours with my group working on the Campo Project. We present on our neighborhood on Thursday! I spent the whole night researching and preparing a survey of my photo work to go over with my profs tomorrow. 

I still have yet to decide on a final theme...but there's plenty of time because we only meet for an hour or so in the morning for photo this week to check in on our progress so I have tons of time to shoot. I don't know how I'm not going to have a camera once i get home and sadly have to return the Nikon to the NEU photo lab! Hopefully COOP will help me be able to get one! We only have one week left!! BOO! This program really needs to be 6 weeks long---not just because I want to stay here longer but because it was a tad rushed and truncated. Nonetheless, I've had a fab time and I've learned ALOT! Now onto finals week......

Love,

Sarah

OH YES I ALMOST FORGOT! The world is so SO SMALL! 3 years ago in front of a museum in London I saw a huge  sculpture of a pregnant lady with no limbs. Saturday night as we were leaving Verona I SAW THIS STATUE AGAIN! I know its the same one because when we saw it in London we were told it was a traveling sculpture! AH!

Fun!

Random, fun light and space pics! 

Fun with flashlights and 20 second exposures in San Marco, corner of the Ducal Palace, random stairs near Santa Maria delle Salute.

List

Things to do and see:

Do:

Come up with a theme for photo final

Campo project

Go to a dance club if there are any in Venice

A tid bit of laundry

Go the Lido beach atleast 2 more times

See:

Peggy Guggenheim Collection

Verona (think Shakespeare)

Murano (glass blowing island)

Jewish Ghetto 

Burano

I took these random colorful pictures on the Island of Burano I talked about in an earlier post! It's 40 mins on the boat from Venice. For some reason the colors in ALL of my pics are muted by Blogger.com 

sad

Milan was fun!

Salve!

I went to Milan this past weekend! Vanessa (one of the TA's) and I took a night trip to Milan on Saturday. We took TrenItalia and it took 2.5 hours to get there. Once there we took the subway two stops to Loreto to our extravagent, classy Hotel Laguna Blu. That was completely sarcastic! HAHA! There was a garden that looked like a crack head decorated it; childrens toys spewed everywhere, a random vacuum cleaner, stacks of chairs, cleaning supplies....it looked more like a storage closet than the garden they asked us to wait in. We had two lil twin beds in a room that smelled like cig smoke! The perk: AIR CONDITIONING! Which came in handy after a night of clubbing and a heat wave. But first I should talk about the turisty stuff. We went to see the Duomo, which looks like a big frosted cake. It is extremely Gothic inside and out. IT IS MASSIVE! We went through the main shopping area (the first of its kind) which is right off of the Duomo Square. Then we hit the public gardens.

Main shopping area in Milan

Vanessa and I had to get some key things out of our system. After 2 weeks straight of pasta and pizza we went out for sushi. GUILTY!!! I needed to switch up my taste palette. Also, the nightlife in Venice is lacking, which is fine because we're so busy anyways.  SO Saturday night in Milan we went to a crazy chic club called The Oracle seeking fun Euro techno music with a lot of bass and beat---and that's what we got! We danced and drank vodka tonics til 3 am! I wore heels (which I NEVER DO!!) We made random friends at the club. We took a cab home. 

Vanessa and I in the Public Gardens in Milan

Monday we went across the canal to Giudecca with our Prof. Holly to do some shooting for the space assignment. We took us to her old rowing club and a ship yard for some random and interesting shots. I will return to Giudecca to probably do some much needed laundry....

Last night (Monday night) I wrote 4 art history papers, one page per work of art from different churchs around the city. One paper was about the facade of the Palazzo Dolfin-Manin, which is on the Grand Canal near the Ponto Rialto. 

Hotel Laguna Blu, Milan 

This week in photo we we are working on the space assignment. Today we went to the Franciscan Basilica Santa Maria Gloriosa dei Frari. The facade and exterior architecture is purposefully simple. The monks of this church lived off of charity and focused ALL of their energy on meditation. St. Francis meditated SO hard that he bears the same wounds on his hands as Christ. The Assumption of the Virgin by Titian is the main altarpiece in Basilica Santa Maria Gloriosa dei Frari. This piece truly launched his career.  I'm working on the campo project with Krissy, Jenna, and Abbey. Solid group. We study a neighborhood for a week and a half and then give the  class a tour of the campo's church, architecture etc.....We pretend to be our art history teacher for 40 minutes. And of course we each write our own 8 pages papers.

TEAL, WE HAVE LIBRARY CARDS FOR THE BIG PUBLIC LIBRARY IN VENICE!!!! I know you'd love to hear that!

Random pic of shadow and light (the weekend assignment)

Monday we went across the canal to Giudecca with the photo class. Holly took us around to her old rowing club and an old ship yard. Though, I have had my fill of pictures of boats. 

After class today we went to Punto supermarket for lunch, where I was WAY OVERCHARGED FOR MY PASTA SALAD AH!!! Because of the language barrier I lost the argument with the cashier. Oh well. My Italian has gotten a lot better and natural sounding.

 

Tomorrow night we're all meeting Piazza San Marco to have a workshop on night shooting. Thursday night we're having a cocktail party at Prof. Andrea G's house! We're wearing masks like Venecians do during Carnivale. 

Vanessa and I in front of the Duomo, Milan

Anyways! The NEU Photo Venice 2009 website has been started with our bios and random unfinished pictures to fill it until they post our final projects in mid June!

www.neuphotovenice.com

Arrividerci,

Sarah

People

Ciao!!!

Wow this week was intense! Again, this week was our people shooting assignment...not my best but no one had extremely good luck with it. I've included some pictures I'm not quite done editing yet. We went to Burano (pictures of colorful buildings in next post) on Wednesday for photo. It wasn't the best place to shoot people unfortunately it was all tourist or angry Italians. But the buildings are gorgeous. Next assignment is shadow and light, which is great because I already have tons for it!!! 

Yesterday we switched gears in art history and discussed domestic architecture and HOW they built houses in Venice (considering they were building on damp sand). 

Venecians did research into what kinds of tree trunks and stone could resist water. Turns out the foundations of houses are layed in piles of larch tree (high sap content). Venecians would hammer the trunks into the sand down into the clay where walls would be built. Then Istrian Stone (water resistant) would make the foundation. Some of the nice palaces are made entirely of Istrian Stone, specifically the classical ones because of the white color. 

 It's cool to be able to look at a facade and be able to tell what century it is from based on the style of the pilasters, architectural members, arch shapes, materials, etc. The coolest facades are mixed; began by one architect and finished by another. Our art history professor calls these "schizo" facades haha. An example of this is San Zaccaria, which is close to PSM. 

The bottom floor is Gothic and decorative because it was initially being built by an architect Antonio Gambello but finished by Mauro Codusi, who studied classical antiquity. We also discusses family structure; the first born son and daughter got to marry off but any 2nd or 3rd daughter or son would join the church. Spirituality was forced on the nuns of S. Zaccaria. Kristina told us these nuns were "Bad" and would sneak out to be courted by men and to lead a normal life. 

We got to go inside Ca'D'Oro, which means house of gold. It was originally all covered in gold leaflet but now only grey and pink marble remain. In Venice in the 14th and 15th Century it was all about trading, seeing, and being seen. 1st floors were open to the water for trade, which also displayed a confidence that Florence didn't have. Open first floor arcades (also found on the Ducal Palace) demonstrated that Venecians weren't afraid of invasion. The rich only entered off the water...the streets were for the poor to walk on. In Florence, you're lucky to find an eye level window on the first floor. Florentines were afraid for their lives. Speaking of Florence, I am trying to plan a trip there next week. I'm also trying to make it to Milan but with all of these assignments the outlook is bleak for side trips. I hope they work out. 

Anyways, big group crit with advanced class (nervous) gotta run! Can't believe this trip is half over already ah!!!! Sorry the pictures never match the text art history and photo don't align and I don't bring my big camera with me everywhere.

Love much,

Sarah

 

PRoud moment

Salve,

True to my new nickname (G.D for garbage disposal because I eat all my food and everyone elses' leftovers when out to dinner) I am gorging on three different kinds of salads (bean, caprese, and verdure all'italiana) solo in the cafe because I have to head out to do my shooting of street photo (a.k.a pics of people which is so hard and not what I'm good at). Mostly, I'm afraid to piss off Venecian locals. I think instead I'll head to Piazza San Marco and take pics of dorky tourists and hope it turns out well? Andrea Raynor (one of the profs) her husband is giving us a class on how to shoot people tomorrow (photo not with a gun!). But we're still supposed to have some shots tomorrow for show. 

We spent all day at the gallerie Accademia learning about the 14th-16th Centuries with Kristina. We focused on the transition in Venice from Abstract to Gothic to Renaissance. It was a sampler and of course we got to finally talk about the 3 big whigs: Veronese, Titian, and Tintoretto. We learned how to analyze these kinds of works (altar pieces, commisioned pieces, etc) so that we can do our first writing assignment. Analyze three different assigned paintings and one architectural work on our own and write one page about each! 

Side trips are in the works. I'm trying to head to Milan and Lake Cuomo maybe this weekend and everyone's trying to make it to Florence. Florence is a main basis for comparison in our art history class. Though I've been, I think I'd have a whole new appreciation for it vs. when I went after senior year of high school. Verona is an easy cheap day trip we're going to try and hack on a half day of class (Tuesdays are 9-1pm).

Thursday we're discussing domestic architecture along the grand canal and Ca'd'Oro and early renaissance painting for altars and confraternities. We touched on these things at the Accademia today as well. 

Gotta go shoot and then go to Jenna and Krissy's room. We're all bringing snacks and pushing 4 twin beds together in hopes that all 18 of us will fit. 

We're setting up a projector (we have huge white walls in our rooms) and speakers. Should b

e fun! Sorry my writing is sloppy in these blogs.

Peace!

Love,

Sarah

Pictures (don't relate to text haha): 

Top lady riding bike in rain in Padua last Friday

 Middle boat in canal by Santa Margherita for color assignment

Bottom 9/11 Memorial in Padua

A few more pics...

A few more pictures from near my vaparetto stop.

Ciao!

Weekend 2!

Buona Sera!!!

It's Sunday night and I'm fried to a crisp from being on the beach at Lido for 4 hours today! It was magical. It was a crazy weekend and didn't end up raining one 

from. I guess I should start back at Thursday because that's where I left off.

Thursday we went to Torcello, a beautiful island in the lagoon that only has 14 residents! It takes an hour to get there on the vaparetto. I went to a 

Cathedral, chapel, garden, bell tower etc. The reason why Torcello is significant is because it wasn't updated when the Renaissance became hip. 

The original frescos and glass mosaics are then still abstract, 2D, Bizintine. This is unlike Piazza San Marco because PSM is a collage of both Eastern and Westen influences and has a slew of different centuries art work and style. We had a

 big group lunch at a restaurant in a garden--penne with cheese and speck sauce and caprese salad = YUM! We finished up the day by going into 

Church of St. Mark's in PSM. (PSM=Piazza San 

Marco)

Thursday night I met up with Maxine, a friend of Katya's, at Cafe Blue with my friends Jenna and Krissy. 

There was beer and merriment and karaoke (both Italian and English). Her friends Federico and Mattia took us to a party at an Italian University near the train station. They were having a full blown dance party in the courtyard of what I think was their dorm it was fun!

Friday was a little rainy. After class I headed to Padova on the train with some peoples. One of the TA's Vanessa wanted to see the Church of San Antonio. 

It was a fun day trip adventure. The picture of the trolley is one of the pictures from Padova. Interestingly, they had a VERY classy memorial for Sept 11th. Quite random but nice. The Cathedral of San Antonio of a lil hard to find, but then again we didn't have a map and none of us had ever been there. The Cathedral houses his relics, of course, but has his voice box, tongue, and mandible on display. I think they are embalmed but the believers of that church think they were preserved because he was such a famous preacher that the parts of the body used to speak were preserved. 

Saturday I was totally pooped so after lunch I laid around, edited some pictures, and slept. They run us hard here but it's amazing. We made a big dinner in the back courtyard with groceries bought at Billa, a big grocery store we are quickly coming to love because it's cheap. Last night we all went to the bars in Santa Margherita (it's a big square nearby) because that's really the only place that young locals and young people in general hang out! 

Today I woke up to the shrill of a baby in the room next door (I think a young family is here for the weekend) and bells as usual haha. I had to get up anyways we wanted to get our butts to Lido to the beach. I floated around in the water out there, read my new book, and managed to get burnt because I'm too proud to wear sunscreen (cough cough I learn it from my dad haha). Next time I will I learned my lesson! 

Got back from the beach and set out to do my photo homework for the weekend (color and non color photos). We have a small group critique tomorrow. Things are REALLY going to pick up this week. It's very fast paced but it's super fun and interesting so it doesn't actually feel like work. We're trying to organize a trip to Cinque Terre for next weekend. People are going to Florence the following weekend but I don't know if I'm going to go cause I've been already. I heard Milan is a reasonable day trip. We're making a big group buffet tomorrow in the dining area with food from the Billa. We're also pushing tons of beds together and using a projector from the classroom to have a big movie night tomorrow night! 

Anyways, time is slipping away and it already 11 pm and I have a list of things to do. Might get up early before breakfast tomorrow to shoot in morning light. Quickly becoming a fan of this photo thing! But, the pics I put up here are mostly unedited and touristy because you'll get to see any of my "good" stuff at the end!

Buona Sera!

Love,

Sarah

Sorry my post are SO A.D.D. we're so busy but it's going to be rainy this weekend (sad face) so I'm going to write a good one with new pics! <3

Ciao! 

Yesterday was the first day of our Venecian Art History class and it was AMAZING!!! We went with Dr. Krystina Stymbole, who's very young and extremely intelligent. She is from Canada and teaches BU Fall and Spring. She has her Ph.D in Art History, 16th Century Venecian Art History. We spent 4 hours in Piazza San Marco! I learned so much I hardly know where to start. She talked about the political history of Venice and how it has effected it's formation, art, and style. We focused on the architecture and arches in order to predict Eastern and Western styles and time period significance. We visited the Museo Correr and I feel in the love with the old maps of Venice and a stone sculpture depicting the story of the Icarus and Daedulus by Canova. The father is attached feathers to his son with wax to make wings so he can fly to the sun. But as he approaches the sun the wax melts and he comes plummeting down to his death. We have many different projects that will make up our final grade. Tomorrow we're taking a trip to the island of Torcello to see The Last Judgement and to Piazza San Marco to finish up there.

San Marco is super touristy but I have a whole new respect for it because of the history. It is considered the foyer of Venice. Fisherman on the mainland escaped to the islands in the lagoon to hide from hoards of troops coming over the alps in the 6th Century. All they could harvest in the lagoon was fish and salt.

Anyways, tonight we're going to dinner at Holly's. Last night we went to Santa Margherita area bars for Jillie's 21st. I woke up in time to shoot before class. I went 3 days in a row to my vaparetto stop but I still need to go back with my tripod for some things that need to be shot with a low low shutter speed. I don't think I'm going to get to see Aron!

 He's leaving Sunday for Boston I think. IRONIC! I would head over Friday but it's supposed to be rainy this weekend BOO! I'm meeting up with Katya's friend Maxine on Thursday. She's here abroad from BU.

Just as a disclaimer...all these photos are unedited etc.....

First assignment etc

Yesterday we had our first day of class and, of course, I'm in Digital Photo 1 and my prof is Holly Pedlosky. I learned a TON about Bridge and how my camera works and that BASICS of all basics that I never took the time to learn like ISO, aperture, shutter speed and which works best where. During our 2 hour lunch break I grabbed tapas, again, and we laid out on the docks on la Guidecca Canal right by the Don. 

We got our first assignment yesterday too and I went out to start shooting for it. We each got a slip of paper with a vaparetto stop that we need to go to and investigate. Images are due on Wednesday and big group critique is Friday with both classes combined. My stop is Ca' Rezzonico. Sadly, the main building to see at that stop is under renovation but it's more about investigating the neighborhood and reporting back so that we all learn about different areas in Venice. We had dinner just over the Ponte Accademia last night, pizza duh. I stumbled across a fruit vendor yesterday thank goodness and bought strawberries (fragoli). I'm going back to this supermercado I found yesterday called Punto in the Santa Margherita area to buy snack bars, fruit, and veggies.

I'm really excited because we are going to have dinner at all of the Profs' apartments while we're here. Tomorrow night I go with my photo 1 class to Holly's apt, next week we go to A-ray's (Andrea Raynor), and then we go all together the third week to Andrea G's for cocktails! Pics aren't posting for some reason right now...maybe later. 

<3 

One more thing...

Eh I figured I'd write a lil more while I wait for this fam guy episode to buffer that I'm going to watch in bed (no internet in rooms). I actually don't mind no internet in room. I'm keeping this blog but I don't plan on going on the internet too much. 

I forgot how eco-conscious Italy and Europe is. The lights here are on a motion sensor so they turn on and off as you walk around the Don. The electricity in the rooms depends on putting your room key in the slot--so you can't leave lights on when you leave for the day. All of the toilets have 2 buttons: 1 big one for big things haha and a small one for small things. I know we have that spotted around Boston too but it's everywhere here. There are recycling bins everywhere. Trash in Venice seems to be hung in lil CVS sized bags from the door knobs of houses everyday so it doesn't look like much or has the chance to get super stinky and gross. My one complaint is that there are ALOT of pushers here that walk around trying to get you to buy roses or stupid toys. Lots of Sudanese men selling fake Louis Vuitton's but that's mostly near the super touristy areas.

Just thought I'd add that random thought. Buona sera! <3

Thusfar!

Hello everyone!

I'm safe and extremely happy to be here. I couldn't stop smiling the biggest, dorkiest smile today. So, I've decided to keep a blog while I'm in Venice to help me keep track and remember forever the details of this trip  and to share with you but you only have to read what you think is interesting!

This picture is taken from the plane as we flew over the Alps from Zurich to Venice on SwissAir. SwissAir was fantastic and gave me so much wine on our big flight over, dinner, breakfast, personal TV with video games, movies on demand, hot towels, and a camera that let's you see the pilot's view and Swiss Chocolate at the end. Highly recommended.

 Anyways I hand wrote about Day 1 but I'm going to recap here...

I'm staying at a beautiful modernized monastary called the Don Orione (below). The Don is in a neighborhood called Dorsoduro-in between the Grand Canal and Guidecca Canal. It's all marble. There's a really cool spiral staircase up to our rooms on the third floor. I'm rooming with two really nice girls, Julianna and Corey. We have four twin beds in our big room but there's just 3 of us. There's a nice bathroom with a bidet (which I totally used last night for fun at 4 am after a night of drinking hahah). The classrooms (aula) are right on site we start tomorrow morning at 9am! Digital Photography is Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays starting at 9 and Venecian Art History is Tuesday, Thursdays starting at 9 as well. I'm going to be epically busy--but I'd hope so because this trip is 8 credit hours in 4 short weeks. Our instructors; the Andrea's and Holly seem amazing. Holly is the oldest and has lived in Venice off and on for 25 years but lives in the Boston and teaches at NEU mostly. Her and her husband moved here first along time ago with their yong children because her husband got a water biology position (makes sense that's all this place is!)

I woke up extremely early Saturday (7 am) to the sounds of bells, birds, and the water fountain down in the courtyard. Had breakfast in the Don and went on a mini adventure with Melissa and the Katie's to Santa Maria delle Salute (health) near Ponte dogana (customs) and to S. Marco neighborhood across the Ponte (bridge) Accademia I thought this was a big deal but you'll never hear about this bridge again because I now realize I'll be crossing it everyday. It spans the grand canal and is made of wood. A sweet, old gap-toothed Australian man traveling alone had me a take a picture of him there today. 

Anyways, we had a group meeting about classes at 11 and then we all had lunch (4 lil tapas and a mini salami sandwich and birra Domani beer for me). We took the #62 vaparetto boat to an island in the lagoon called Lido where there is a beach. I saw two sets of boobs, one young and one old and fat haha. While there, we also watched the bikers (including Lance Armstrong!) race in the Giro d'Italia. We went to dinner and the bars last night--always a good bonding experience. Kamikaze shots for a toast to NEU PHOTO VENICE '09. This is the 3rd year the program has run. I bought a big ass bottle of wine for 4.90 euro that should last me a while.

Today I woke up at 1 p.m (woops, but so did everyone else!) and got bruschetta and espresso for lunch with the T.A's, Annie and Vanessa. Both freshly graduated and here for FREE! After being with the group non stop for a while I decided to strike out on my own for the afternoon to explore and do our first assignment; get all of the touristy kinds of photos out of our systems! So I walked over to Piazza San Marco (epic!), the Giardini Pubblici (public gardens), took the vaparetto to the Fondamente Nuove stop (North section of Venice I'm on the south of the island), Ponte Rialto, and got lost just for fun in multiple neighborhoods. 

I can see why in a month I will know this place well--it's actually sort of small, like Boston. Big lil' city. Yes there are lots of tourists but not where I'm staying. We have a month pass for the vaparetto--the water subway. It's like the T in that the card taps like the CharlieCard and you wait in the station (on a dock). There are tons of lines that are color-coded and numbered. Instead of inbound and outbound it's sort of like up and down the Grand Canal or counter clockwise or clockwise around the island. The above picture with the big yellow building on the right is taken on the Ponte Accademia overlooking the Grand Canal.

I thought this marking on a side of a church was cute :)

Now I know why they gave us the assignment to get all of these sorts of pictures out of our system. I must have taken 50 bridge pictures today haha. I took 253 pictures around the city today. We went to dinner near the bars we went to last night. I had shrimp scampi and salad and gladly passed on drinks tonight. After all, it's a school night for me! I also had crem caramel gelatto! 

Whew, that was alot. It won't be that long everyday I just had a lot of start-up things to say! Well, Happy Mother's day everyone-- I iChatted with my family today it was really cute.

 

Buona sera!

Peace 'n' Love